Teens turn away from cigarettes, embrace vaping

The U.S. Surgeon General warns e-cigarette use is a growing public health concern. Sean Dowling (@seandowlingtv) has more.
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Smoking electronic cigarettes, or "vaping," is a growing trend among adolescents. Experts say many people first become exposed to drugs like nicotine as adolescents, and substance use can become a lifelong behavior.(Photo11: Brian M. Wells/Times Herald)Buy Photo

Smoking is a hard habit to kick, but traditional tobacco use among adults has declined steadily over the past 50 years. But a surge in recent years of newfangled electronic cigarette vaping devices is reintroducing nicotine to the next generation.

Port Huron High School freshman Chloe Stuart, 15, said she's seen the popularity of vaping among her peers. Stuart said she's never tried vaping and thinks it's mainly a social trend.

“You can’t really stop anyone from doing it if they grew up around people who do it,” Stuart said. “It’s mainly peer pressure.”

Port Huron High School sophomore Jordan Williamson, 17, said vaping is common at his school and that it's pretty easy for students to get away with.

"They pop in the bathroom and do it," Williamson said. "Almost everyone at school talks about vaping."

Brian Sivels, 18, moved to Port Huron after graduating early in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Sivels first smoked cigarettes when he was about 16 years old, and subsequently tried vaping.

"It doesn't beat a cigarette or anything," Sivels said.

He said he views tobacco and vaping as about equally risky, due to the addictiveness of nicotine. He's known people who have used e-cigarettes to cut back on traditional tobacco products, Sivels said.

"People try and get away from cigarettes and use it as a backup," Sivels said.

As tobacco use has dropped off, vaping has picked up. Local educators are seeing the impact in their schools.

"As far as we can tell, vaping has replaced typical tobacco use," Algonac High School principal Ryan Melrose wrote in an email. "We rarely if ever catch any students with cigarettes."

The numbers

Between 1996 and 1997, 28 percent of adolescents reported smoking tobacco cigarettes within the past 30 days, according to CDC data. In 2015, that number had fallen to 7 percent.

Around 2014, vaping use among high school students surpassed traditional tobacco use for the first time, according to the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey. It was a breakout year for e-cigarettes.

Vaping use among high school students increased from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014. Use among middle school students also tripled in that time, going from 1.1 percent to 3.9 percent. The 2016 survey put vaping use at 11.3 percent among high school students and 4.3 percent among kids in middle school, a decline from 2015.

The separate Monitoring the Future survey found that in 2017, 19 percent of 12th graders, 16 percent of 10th graders and 8 percent of 8th graders use e-cigarettes.

Adolescence is the time in a person's life when they are most likely to begin abusing drugs like nicotine, according to St. Clair County Health Department spokesperson Jennifer Michaluk. These substance use behaviors can follow them throughout the rest of their lives.

"During this time, the brain is still developing," Michaluk wrote in an email. "There is a desire to seek new experiences with pleasurable rewards, but judgment and decision-making skills are still limited. Drug use during this time can harm brain development and make adolescents who use any type of drug more susceptible to addiction."

How is this happening?

Ever since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the rules in August 2016, merchants are prohibited from selling vaping devices to people younger than 18 years old.

However, kids have ways around this.

Vaporizers are more difficult to detect than traditional tobacco products, due to their relative lack of smell and the quick dissipation of their vapor cloud. Concern has been raised that some companies are making vapes that look like common objects such as USB drives or pens.

"Students are also ordering these devices on Amazon and having them shipped to their homes without concern of being caught, because the manufacturers are purposefully packaging them much like the devices they are designed to look like," Yale Public Schools social worker Julie Jowett-Lee wrote in an email. "Rumors of students selling devices and vaping products to one another are increasing."

Yale Junior High School principal Adam Nelson said that the students often use a pre-paid debit card or gift certificate to make the online purchases.

One brand — the JUUL manufactured by JUUL Labs Inc. — has generated headlines and criticism for the device's likeness to common USB drives.

(Photo11: Juul Labs)

The JUUL website includes a policy statement on its youth prevention initiatives and invites the public to report illegal sales of the device to youthprevention@juul.com. The company also requires buyers on its website to be 21 years of age or older, and requires a purchaser to provide a mailing address which the company checks against public records.

The JUUL website also provides a listing of stores where its products are available. There are seven locations listed in and around Port Huron. One location is listed in Croswell and two more are listed in Richmond.

Juul vaporizers(Photo11: Emma Kate Fittes, The Indianapolis Star)

However, the Times Herald found JUUL vapes and cartridges at locations not included in on the company's map, so the list is not a complete account of the product's availability.

Currently, there is no law in Michigan banning the use of electronic cigarettes by minors, though legislative changes have been proposed. Schools are free to ban the devices, warn of their risks, confiscate them and discipline rule-breakers as needed. In St. Clair County, Algonac, Capac, East China, Marysville, Memphis, Port Huron and Yale schools all explicitly mention e-cigarettes in their tobacco and smoking policies.

But at the end of the day, any minor with an 18-year-old friend willing to purchase them a device can get one.

How can youth nicotine addiction be fought?

While vapes have been touted by some advocates as an alternative to traditional tobacco products or a way to wean oneself off of nicotine, health authorities are firm in their analysis that they are considered tobacco products.

"Any type of tobacco use during adolescence and young adulthood can cause addiction and harm to the developing brain," Michaluk said. "Young people who vape are at risk for switching to traditional cigarettes later in life. Vaping is not an FDA approved smoking cessation tool."

There are other avenues available for young people who want to quit nicotine but need help. Locally, young people can call the Teen Health Center at (810) 987-1311 or visit the location at 2215 Court St., Port Huron. There, they can receive a free quit smoking kit. They can also call the Michigan Tobacco Quitline at (800) 784-8669. The quitline is offering new enrollees who are older than 18 two free weeks of nicotine replacement therapy through the end of May, combined with remote coaching.

What about other drugs?

Nicotine is but one of many substance abuse behaviors that can start in adolescence. The national 2017 Monitoring the Future Survey found that marijuana use increased by about 1.3 percent over 2016 for 8th, 10th and 12th graders combined — with 24 percent of students polled reporting use.

The survey also found the number of 8th graders who reported using inhalants within the past year also increased by 0.9 percent to reach 4.7 percent. Alcohol use among those polled did not change significantly. Students who used heroin within the past year remained very low among those polled, sitting at 0.4 percent. Students reporting prescription opioid use within the past year also fell slightly, sitting at 4.2 percent.

Factors such as availability of drugs, use of drugs by friends or family, abusive or violent home environments and history of mental illness among family increase the chances of a young person trying drugs, Michaluk said. She also noted that research is ongoing about ACEs, or adverse childhood experience, which can correlate with substance abuse as a child grows up.

"Signs of drug abuse may include poor school or work performance, lack of energy/motivation, weight loss or gain, lack of personal hygiene/personal grooming, becoming more secretive about friends, drastic changes in friends, sudden requests for money or for multiple prescription refills, your discovery of missing money, prescription medications, or items from your home," Michaluk said.

Those around the Thumb looking for help in changing their substance use behaviors can contact the Region 10 access line at (888) 225-4447.